Best Acts of the Aughts

I've been reading lots of "best of" lists. "The best 500 songs of the '00s" and "The top 200 albums of the 2000s." So I thought I'd wade in.

But I don't have time to list 200 albums, so I thought I'd do something a little different and list who I think are the top 10 acts for the decade that is a few months from drawing to a close. My prerequisites: They released acclaimed works in the decade and are still, at the decade's close, an existing venture, a band or artist that we can suspect has more to offer. I also don't have much interest in building up an obscure band. I think great bands are measured not only by their art but their influence and you can't be too influential if you're completely obscure.

My method was one part scientific (I asked friends what they thought) and another part proudly subjective -- these are artists and bands I think are terrific, but for which I don't necessarily see that many share my enthusiasm. Perhaps it would be better called a favorite list, not a best of list.

Also, this is primarily a "rock list" I don't listen to dance music anymore and I don't listen to hip hop or pop much anymore, either. New country? Never. There's only so much time in the day...

10. Ray LaMontagne
(Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain)

I like singer songwriters, and have gone through periods where I favor acoustic guitar to anything else. But there are few who I feel offer much more than revamped '60s sons and campfire fare.

Ray La Montagne can certainly be accused of some of these things -- he has his moments of sounding positively like an early '70s throwback -- but of all the singer songwriters I've heard, his songs and his performance of those songs are matchless. The voice, the dark, personal and nearly impenetrable lyrics -- all contribute to a sound that is ancient yet fresh at the same time.

And his story is remarkable, too. In 1999, at the age of 25, LaMontagne was working in a shoe factory in Lewiston, Maine when he awoke to his alarm clock playing Steven Stills' "Treetop Flyer." He decided to quit his job, sold a van for an acoustic guitar began shopping a 10-song demo. After playing around at various folk gigs, he was signed to RCA and recorded his debut, Trouble in two weeks with producer Ethan Johns, who also joins LaMontagne on tour as a drummer.

LaMontagne is not a trend setter, but he does what he does better than anyone I've heard this decade.

9. Drive By Truckers
(Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day, The Dirty South, A Blessing and a Curse, Brighter than Creation's Dark)

There's nothing progressive about southern rock, but the Drive By Truckers, manages to take the sounds and attitude of Lynard Skynard and Hank Williams and lend it a sonic attack that owes more to Sonic Youth than .38 Special. They can be beautifully quiet but can also whip up a three-guitar howl unlike any other.

For a group that debuted as a decidedly more country-flavored band with the not very well titled Gangstabilly, the 2000s have been a great -- and prolific -- year for the Georgia quintet. One of the band's strengths has long been the fact that it is not a vehicle for a single songwriter. Guitarists Partterson Hood and Mike Cooley split most of the songs and the lead vocals, and the two have let their sidemen like Jason Isbell who left to go solo (and create much less interesting music) and current bassist Shonna Tucker share songwriting and vocal duties.

Because of that team approach, each album they've put out in the last decade is packed with terrific songs. And the songs are not pop fare. There are character sketches of infamous southern icons, everyday losers and drug users. They write about poverty, war and survival.
The Truckers have managed to take southern rock, as both a musical foundation and a theme, and make it sound brand new. It's not a schtick, it's great music.

8. The White Stripes
(De Stijl, White Blood Cells, Elephant, Get Behind Me Satan, Icky Thump)

I have a love/hate relationship with this band.

When I first heard DeStijl in a friend's car in San Francisco, I couldn't believe my ears. Whoever was playing drums was terrible. The playing was so bad, I couldn't duplicate it if I tried. Time went by and the Stripes got bigger and bigger. Soon I found I couldn't resist the early singles "Fell in Love With a Girl" and "Hotel Yorba." The White Stripes started a charge of garage and punk bands at the time, but managed to stay creatively ahead of the pack on subsequent albums.

I still feel sometimes that the White Stripes are a lot more about style than substance and that Jack White is not much more than a museum curator who will soon run out of ways to repackage Zeppelin riffs and three-chord mandolin folk pieces. This is certainly true of his recent side projects, particularly the dreadful Dead Weather. Still, their influence on this decade is indisputable.

And I have to give credit to Jack and Meg. You can take any one of their albums, turn up as loud as your ears can take it and it sounds awesome. What more can you ask of a rock band?

7. The Doves
(Lost Souls, The Last Broadcast, Some Cities, Kingdom of Rust)

I've long been a fan of British indie rock. Though I wasn't an adherent of the Stone Roses and never could figure out Oasis, I loved Blur, Radiohead ad am really impressed with newer bands like The Viels, Reverend and the Makers, The Magic Numbers and, yes, The Arctic Monkeys, too. The best of the pack for me, though (Radiohead excluded) is The Doves.

A Manchester trio that got its start in dance music but moved to indie rock when their studio burned down just before the decade began, the Doves have cranked out four albums in the last 10 years that have blended Radiohead's space rock sound with a much more pop-grounded sensibility in line with their Britpop contemporaries, like Coldplay.

But while Coldplay has gone for arena-filling bombast, the Doves have stuck to great songwriting and sound experimentation -- they mix rushing guitars with ambient keys and can move seamlessly from country-inspired stomps to droning guitar atmospherics -- that, in my opinion, makes them the most compelling English band this side of, well, Radiohead. Each album they've released manages to be better than the last, too as they add layers and sounds and more great songs. Their most recent Kingdom of Rust, released in January of this year, remains my favorite album of '09.

I really feel the Doves are criminally underrated. They've debuted twice at number one in their homeland so perhaps its just a matter of time before they catch on here. I won't hold my breath.

6. Neko Case
(Furnace Room Lullaby, Blacklisted, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, Middle Cyclone)

Neko Case started out as something of a Canadian Americana act. (She's not Canadian, but that seems to be where her early career "took off.") She's also been a member of the New Pornographers during the last decade, but where she has really shined is as a solo artist, beginning with Blacklisted and following with two equally superb albums, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, and The Middle Cyclone.

On these records Case approaches American folk music from its darkest themes (death, lust, jealousy and the random cruelty of nature) and adds something all her own. No one else could have pulled off a song from the perspective of a lovesick tornado ("This Tornado Loves You" from Middle Cyclone). Layered with wild lyrics about spirit foxes, dead lovers and teenage fantasy, Case approaches her songs sonically with lots of reverb and plenty of oddball hooks. Her music is spooky and mesmerizing. It's distinctly American.

On a side note, I'm aware as I write this that Case is the only female artist/band leader that occurred to me in compiling this list. That female acts are not as prominent in indie rock in the 2000s is pretty puzzling. It's definitely something that bears more reflection. Perhaps in a future post here.

5. Interpol
(Turn on the Bright Lights, Antics, Our Love to Admire)

I was late to the Interpol appreciation party. I really liked the first record's sound -- the reverbed but funky guitars, the amazing rhythm work, particularly the loping melodic bass playing of Carlos Dengler, but I couldn't take large doses of Paul Banks' flat vocals.

I have since gotten over that problem and have really come to enjoy the band's work. There is something about Interpol's arrangements that are really cinematic in scope. The sound the band produces is rhythmically bouncy, somewhat dance-y, but the guitars can provide an awesome dark wall of sound or chink away in a funk rythm. Songs like "Say Hello to the Angels" and "Obstacle 2" from ...Bright Lights enjoyed all these qualities. And though most feel their first is their best, I think their sound only expanded on the followup, Antics, an album that enjoys more variety of mood and a richer sonic palette than Turn no the Bright Lights.

And although 2007's Our Love to Admire didn't get the critical kudos of Bright Lights, it contains great songs. The single "Heinrich Maneuver" is as good as any they've recorded. Love is a step backwards from Antics, but it's a step backwards from two amazing albums. There's no reason to doubt that Interpol has a lot of good material left in them.

4. Kings of Leon
(Youth and Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak, Because of the Times, Only by the Night)

Theirs is the kind of story a fiction writer might have a hard time concocting. Once a group of scraggly brothers and one cousin, who played support for their fundamentalist revival preacher father Ivan, the Fallowills have risen from a band of Nashville nobodies to become the "Biggest Band in the World" in less than 10 years.

Or it least seems like the Kings are the biggest band in the world. They started as a band known best for "Molly's Chambers" off their debut Youth and Young Manhood because of its placement in a clever Volkswagon commercial. But that was in 2003. This year, no rock song has received more airplay than "Use Somebody" followed closely by "Sex on Fire" off the polished Only by the Night.

Aside from the hype and the band's new turn as an arena band to rival U2, the raucous roots rockers who came up on the tails of the garage rock revival spurred by the White Stripes and Strokes developed their own, whip-tight and almost urbane sound that was completely perfected by their third album, Because of the Times, which is by far the band's best. Nurtured by a tour with U2, the band's rhythm section -- Nate and Jared -- has become one of the best in rock, Caleb's voice has become huge and Matt's lead guitar playing is tremendous. Those qualities, paired with the right indie look (packaging is everything -- no one was going to fall in love with these guys when they all sported mullets and mustaches) and the wild back-story has made this band one that may with us as long as a U2 or even the Rolling Stones.

3. Arcade Fire
(Funeral, Neon Bible)

There's something to be said for art that keeps the observer or the audience off balance. From the first moments you hear the Canadian band Arcade Fire, you are not only off balance, you can scarcely believe what you're hearing.

From the opening of "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," the first song on Funeral: an organ swells, a piano begins to pound and strings quickly join in while what sounds like a toy piano twitters in the background and a guitar and bass join the piano in a throbbing rhythm. Next Wim Butler's enters with that voice -- it's in the vein of David Byrne and Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock -- and he's singing about digging a tunnel "From my window to yours," the drums catch up and Arcade Fire in those first moments of the first album announced a rock sound unlike anything you've ever heard -- a blend of Indie rock and Parisian cinema soundtrack.

This is a band that can sometime swell to 10 members who will play everything from traditional rock instruments -- guitars, bass and drums -- to xylophones, harps, french horns and even a hurdy gurdy. It's a big, wild sound but one that doesn't lose the terrific songcraft at the heart of Arcade Fire's work. This ain't no world music band. It's a real honest-to-God indie rock band with a terrific sound and brilliant songs.

I'm hard pressed to name a band that is clearly influenced by Arcade Fire, though Beirut comes to mind. But that is likely more a function of how far ahead of the rest of us these Montrealers are. If you couldn't figure these guys out at first, give them another chance. It's well worth it.

2. Wilco
(Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born, Sky Blue Sky, Wilco the Album)

First a qualifier: I like Wilco but I'm not sure they would have made this list had it not been for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I know, that statement is a lot like saying you don't think the Beach Boys would be all that great without Pet Sounds. But I wonder if this band's work without the accomplishment of YHF (for short) would seem so grand...

YHF is one of the great masterpieces of the last generation in rock, an album that started the decade with an inspired bang. It was a statement album from a band that had already veered pleasingly from the beaten path of its alt country roots with 1999's Summerteeth. YHF blew even those expectations away. It was a brilliant album that drew from the same psych pop stew as Sumerteeth but its songs were reconstructed in provocative arrangements (thanks to Jim O'Rourke) and set a new standard for American indie music.

Since then, Wilco has done a really good job of keeping its fan base guessing. There's few other bands that will keep music fans on the edge of their seats ever time a new album comes out. Wilco has managed to beguile us all, extending the experimentation with A Ghost is Born before settling back on the lovely, quiet Sky Blue Sky.

I have to admit that I remain disappointed by this year's Wilco the Album -- "Wilco the Song) and "Bull Black Nova" are great tunes -- but I'm hoping some subsequent listening will let the record grow on me some more. Still, Wilco has been a compelling band that deserves a lot of credit for not letting itself get too comfortable and for taking terrific risks. I just hope their next is a lot more risky than their last.


1. Radiohead
(Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief, In Rainbows)

My friend Bill put it best about Radiohead. Every album they've released has been the best record a band could possibly release at the time. Following their remarkable OK Computer, regarded by many as one of if not the best rock album of a generation, Radiohead faced a tough assignment. How do you follow up a masterpiece?

No problem, Radiohead would do it again with Kid A (and its companion piece, Amnesiac), a mind-blowing blend of electronic gargles and rock blasts set against the theme of techno alienation that set a new tone and a new standard for indie rock. This they followed with two amazing rock albums: Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows could both be placed in a top 20 of the decade.

It's worrisome that the band's front man, Thom Yorke, has been telling interviewers lately that he doesn't think Radiohead could live through recording another full-length album. The band is still together, but is In Rainbows the end of its brilliant line of LPs? Lets hope not. They are, without a doubt, the best rock band of not only the last 10, but the last 20 years.

What's new Pussycat?

Whats new pussycat? woah, woah, woah
Whats new pussycat? woah, woah, woah
Pussycat, pussycat You're delicious And if my wishes Can all come true. I'll soon be kissing your sweet little pussycat lips! -- Tom Jones

In or around sixth grade, I spent many months hanging out with a kid named Nate. Nate was a preacher's kid who I went to school with, and like most kids with an authority figure for a parent, was completely out of control. I remember him leaping from trees, hitting a kid on a bike with a rock during what was supposed to be a friendly game of war and for once rolling down the side of Mt. Southington on purpose... a trick that would have likely killed just about anyone else.

Still, Nate and I had good times. Once, and this is a memory that still sticks with me though it is really of no consequence whatsoever, Nate and I were marching up the road from his Plainville, CT home to get some snacks (Now and Laters were real popular then). He was telling me about a planned roller skating party and about a girl he liked (or maybe it was a girl that our friend Kenney liked... this detail is fuzzy). The thing that made this girl so desirable was her close appearance to a super star of the time.

"This girl looks just like Madonna," I recall Nate saying.

It was a declaration that was supposed to end any discussion. Madonna was a one-of-a-kind sex symbol then. There was no comparison, certainly no gaggle of oversexed and under-talented tarts like we have today. Though she may have been controversial to some, to young, sixth grade boys who were just beginning to really notice girls (though some of us -- like me -- were still years away from caring), it was a given the Madonna might not have been the mother of Jesus, but she was something like a living miracle. Madonna was it.

Some 23 years later, Madonna is still an "it" girl. She's an icon that has been down but never out. The godmother of the pussycat doll set, she is closing in on a 30-year-career as an artist who never seems unable to release a chart-topping dance hit at will. This week, a greatest hits compilation Celebration hit store shelves with some 38 songs and another 30 music videos from the days she absolutely ruled MTV. I read yesterday that the album quickly captured the number 1 spot in the UK.

How did Madonna do this?

Madonna was a convergence of the right person at the right time with the right medium. Her talent is certainly something we could argue about... I've never thought she was a talented singer. She's not a talented song writer that I'm aware of. But, she is an artist whose tastes have always been ahead of the main stream. And she's always had the biggest pair of balls in pop performance. 70s rock sex symbols like Stevie Nicks didn't have an act. They stood there and sang. Madonna brought a burlesque show to the stage (and to video). It was light years into the future.

These assets -- and lets not forget her looks -- helped her take over MTV back when MTV was still a serious vehicle for music (those days ended at least 15 years ago by my guess). As the network changed, so did she. In the Early 80s she was the frilly "Like a Virgin" tease. By the Late 80s she was the concrete blond bombshell and icy "Vogue" queen.

In the 90s, when alt rock threatened the pop business, Madonna upped the ante and released the picture book Sex, just what all those sixth grade boys now entering high school had been waiting for. She also launched a record label, Maverick, that put out pretty daring fare by bands like Bad Brains and The Deftones. She starred in a film version of Evita and seemed larger than ever before.

The act continued. In the late 90s when electronica became the rage (Prodigy's 1997 genre defining The Fat of the Land was released in the US by Maverick, incidentally) Madonna released Ray of Light, an electronica-influenced album made with producer William Orbit. It went triple platinum and won three Grammy awards.

Madonna hasn't had quite that much success since, but her subsequent records have sold plenty (certainly more than most artists in these post-album days). In a time when female pop stars come an go at a completely disposable pace, Madonna is still huge. Her reach and influence is indisputable. From Brittney Spears to Lady Gaga and Foxy Brown to Amy Winehouse, the sex, the bad behavior... all of it belongs to Madonna. What is Lady Gaga's nearly clothes-less act if not the next logical step in the sexed up game of female pop acts that Madonna set in motion?

For better or worse, when we talk about sex in pop music, we're talking about Madonna. I'm sure that in another 30 years, she'll still be with us.. She'll be 81 then, and not in the shape to make sixth grade boys sweat any more, but the next time they do drool for a pop tart, it will be because of Madonna... The tart who started it all.

Sunny Day Real Estate: an appreciation

I owe my exposure to this band to my friend Jeff Root. Jeff was one of a couple fellas I hung out with while working as a book seller at the Top of the Hill Borders. At the time, I was probably preoccupied with Radiohead or in the early stages of what I call my "Jazz Period," during which I listened to virtually nothing but classic Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige and Atlantic records by the masters. This lasted at least five years (more on that some other time).

My interest in indie music was waning... I was burned out on the post-grunge drool (Nirvana's drippings) on the radio and wanted escape. It was as if rock really was about to die.

Root was getting way into Sunny Day and gave me a couple tapes (yup, they still existed) of the band. Can't say I was immediately smitten. Singer Jeremy Enigk's voice can be an acquired taste. But the band was intense, a blend of the guitar rock of the time but with added touches of post-punk hardcore and prog. I liked what I heard. Check out the video for the band's first single below.



Though these guys are credited with (or blamed for) the whole Emo movement, they were and still are a remarkable band. Prompted by the band's reunion (they play the Trocadero. on Oct. 1, I queued up their collected works: the landmark Diary and LP2, which were re-released about a week ago by Sub Pop, and What It Means to be Something On and The Rising Tide. I've been listening to virtually nothing but all week. I find I still favor the much more aggressive Diary and LP2, but I really like the way Enigk's voice developed on What it Means....

All four albums hold up really well, and still sound ahead of their time. They blended a furious two-guitar attack with melodic bass playing and whip-tight drumming. The band avoided hooks like they avoided California (inexplicably, the band had a thing against the Sunshine State and refused to play there for much of its career). Instead they crafted songs that were compelling because of their arrangements. They weren't the first band to use the quiet/loud formula, but they could change tempo and tone like few other bands.

There's not a band that sounds like them. Even as they mellowed out after the first reunion (How it Feels... and Rising Tide), they were exciting. None of the dreck people call Emo sounds like the band either. Sure, Enigk's high-pitch whining has been imitated, but the band's music approach has not been touched by anyone I've heard. They never "caught on" in a really big way. Certainly never like the other Seattle bands that went main street just a few years earlier.

If the group decides to hit the studio again, I'm sure the results would be well worth hearing. These guys just don't get the credit they deserve. They were definitely one of the absolute best bands of the 90s.

Tickets for the band's Philly Show are available on Stub Hub for $44 and up, still. My guess is the price will go up next week. No matter what, the show is sure to be worth the money. There are not many bands like these guys around any more.

Pearl Jam gets happy!

First the personal:

The first song I ever played in a band before a live(and pretty big) audience was Pearl Jam’s “Alive.”

It was at the year-end senior talent show at Bristol Eastern High School and the band was composed of me (on bass) Bill Barnabucci (vocals) Colleen Barry (lead guitar) Stan Dobek (Guitar) and Adam Malic (drums).

The band was a one-off for a group of friends that had been rehearsing for the occasion in Adam’s garage.

I don’t think a tape of the performance exists... maybe it does... But I remember the performance went off well. We killed it. And Pearl Jam was at this time just beginning to become a big band. This was well before “Jeremy” hit the airwaves. Many in our audience, inconceivably, hadn’t heard the song before.

It’s been a long time since that high school show. 17 years. And Pearl Jam has, miraculously, a new album out. But it’s been nearly as long since I, and many other rock fans I know, lost interest. Pearl Jam has always been a band whose ethics I liked -- they decided to stop making music videos at the peak of their popularity, fought Ticketmaster (and lost) and had no reservations about taking political stands. They behaved a lot more like a rock band than most of their contemporaries.

But the band’s music hasn’t been exciting to me since “Ten” arrived with a sea of new, dark rock music that changed things up pretty good from the likes Warrant, Bon Jovi and Ratt that represented rock in those pre-indie days (never mind the steady dose of C&C Music Factory and Bel Biv Devoe-like stuff that dominated pop radio then).

Pearl Jam put out seven albums between that first one and this new one, “Backspacer.” Each contained decent songs, a great rock sound, but by 1995, when Pearl Jam was actively deciding to pursue ground already well-worn by Neal Young, new bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Weezer and Radiohead (to name only the best known few) were already busy making grunge and its classic rock sound obsolete.

But none of this seemed to matter to Pearl Jam. They sounded like a band that had retreated to a cabin in the Washington woods -- somewhere without access to radio, TV or the Internet -- and continued to crank out somewhat interesting but never exciting albums full of dark and ponderous, brooding rock. They never managed to be more than the sum of their talented parts.

So it is a shock to the system to hear the opening few songs of “Backspacer,” which unlike any Pearl Jam outing before it, is full of palpable joy. “Gonna See My Friend,” the album’s first track, is about the bounciest thing the band has ever recorded.

As the album continues through “Got Some” and the catchy “The Fixer” a weight is audibly lifted from the band that had certainly “rocked” in the past, but never with so much concentrated bliss. The reason for this is still a mystery. Maybe they’re thrilled that Bush -- a frequent target of the band -- is finally gone. Who knows? Whatever the reason, it’s as if they finally figured out, “Hey we’re a rock band. Let’s have some fun.”

Unfortunately, the fun doesn’t last. The album soon coasts into rock mediocrity and by the time track 6, “Amongst the Waves” begins, I’m a little bored. There’s something about the up-tempo numbers that energizes this band. They get back there on track 8, “Supersonic,” but slow it down for the rest of the record.

When you boil it down, Pearl Jam is essentially a band of classicists. Which is fine -- they do it better than almost anyone -- it just feels like you’ve heard it all before.

Overall, “Backspacer” is mostly an enjoyable rock romp. At least half of it is very good. It’s not breaking any new ground, but they’re having fun. Finally.

First it was Sunny Day Real Estate...

... now we get word that Pavement is back together and going on tour. According to published reports, the band isn't planning on anything more than a tour next year, so we shouldn't expect a new album.

Overall, it's been a pretty good year for the old giants of indie rock. Two of the best albums this year have been Dinosaur Jr.'s "Farm" and Sonic Youth's "The Eternal." Would be great to hear new material from Pavement and Sunny Day Real Estate...

Only thing that could really round out the year is news of an Afghan Whigs reunion.

Shut up and play yer guitar!

It’s hard to make any argument whatsoever that Phish ever “mattered.” The band’s best work was the plus-10-minute jam with no real lyrics, just an absurdist refrain.

You gotta run like an antelope out of control!

David Bowie! You be 40!

They were an oddity in those heady days of the early '90s.While alternative music boomed, Phish was a goofy throwback – A forerunner of the '90s jam band blitz that mixed its Grateful Dead with equal doses of Zappa and Weather Report.

The band shied away from song craft. In fact, many early lyrics were contributed by a guy named The Dude of Life (AKA Steve Pollak, now a New York school teacher). But still, those early albums were neat. Junta, Lawn Boy and A Picture of Nectar were great fun. Phish was a group of four musicians that could stretch out as well as the best, electrified jazz quartet you could imagine. They pushed their skills to the limit, and the result was exciting.

The band first poked a big stick in the eye of all that diversion with 1994's Hoist. The cover art for that album was appropriately of a racehorse that had apparently been swiped off its feet in some kind of large, leather sling. The album reduced Phish to playing out of its element in a pastiche of classic rock conventions – there were ballads and up-tempo rockers. It sounded as though Eric Clapton were trying to pace a studio funk band that didn’t believe in the material.

Since then, it has been all downhill for Phish (artistically, anyway. The Hoist gambit paid off with an expanded fan base and an exhausting tour schedule that matched the Dead in nearly every way, especially the way that made its members a lot of money.). When the band broke up about five years ago, it seemed the music-listening public might get a break, but Phish “front man” Trey Anastasio got even more intolerable. He recorded an album of even more middling material, played with David Matthews and was busted for drugs and driving under the influence.

So maybe a Phish reunion wouldn’t be so bad? (It couldn’t be worse!)

Well Joy, Phish’s first studio album since 2004’s Undermind is anything but. Still operating in the self-imposed confines of the pop song structure, and the result is the same stifling soup of mediocrity in which the band has swum since ‘94’s Hoist.

The songs run the same tired courses. There's plenty of great Trey Anastoasio guitar tone (it is a beautiful thing) as he soars through one solo after another. There are piano flourishes, great drumming and lead bass playing. But none of it is exciting. In fact, the song "Ocelot," a limping reggae number is pretty offensive. It doesn't help that Anastasio can not sing.

Why Phish -- though I guess Anastasio is largely to blame here – feel they need to work in the salt mines of pop song craft is a real mystery. Is it that important to have songs that matter? And if so, wouldn’t they be better off sticking to the absurd? Frank Zappa is great, but he’s not known from his great pop song craft.

The structure makes them sound decrepit. Younger indie bands experimenting with the pop form, like Grizzly Bear, make Phish sound 100 years old.

So please, Phish, stop trying to write songs. Jam. Drop acid. Get your mojo back. We don’t need another tired , Gen-X pseudo classic rock act (Wilco’s right behind you and gaining). Leave the lounge act to Billy Joel.

Rock lives on for 56 Men

More than 30 years ago, singer/songwriter Joseph Borelli and guitarist Jon Cline were Philadelphia kids realizing their rock ‘n’ roll dreams as members of the band Uproar. It was 1978, and they had a record deal with East Coast Music and a hit single on the Billboard top 100 called "Driftin' Away."

When Uproar faded, the two put together a band called The Patriots, an American band that did well on the Brit Pop circuit of the early ‘80s.

"It was crazy back then," Borelli recalled during a recent interview at the Chestnut Hill Gallery, which he owns. The art framing business at 8117 Germantown Ave. has long been his "day job.” The Uproar scene is all an old haze to him now, a life he left behind for marriage and children a long time ago. There are no more drugs, just a soothing glass of Chardonnay at the end of the day.

Both Borelli and Cline, who also owns a custom frame shop (in Merchantville, NJ, where he lives), were at a point in their lives when starting a new band would not seem likely. Many old-timers, if they were to start a new band, would be satisfied with the occasional acoustic gigs of Stones and Beatles “covers.” Few would start a new project of original songs.

But Borelli and Cline decided that's exactly what they would do.

“Many of the people who were playing when we came up have stopped (performing and writing music)," Cline noted.

Cline had called Borelli about putting a new project together — something they had not done in a long time. Cline knew a bass guitar player, Ian Mellaby, of Northern Liberties (owner of a publishing house), who he felt would be a good fit for the project he had in mind. So Cline and Borelli started hunting for a drummer and ended up finding Joe Dessereau, a gigging drummer (and paralegal) who just happened to live across the street from Borelli in Wyncote.

The new band started rehearsing — developing much of their material from originals Borelli had penned — and soon hooked up with Stephen Butler, who began recording the group at his Smash Palace studios. Butler, whose bands Quincy and Smash Palace had some international success in the ‘80s, was an inspiration to Borelli and Cline. Butler, a contemporary of Cline and Borelli, had put the band Smash Palace, a ‘60s-sounding power pop outfit — back together and as recently as last year toured with the band in the U.S. and the U.K.

"It was cool to see someone our age doing it and encouraging to see something that wasn't Christina Aguilera having success," Cline said.

In March the new band put out the album "56 Men" (Probability Records), which is also the name of the band. (The name comes from the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.) The result is a rejuvenated and energized album of pop-inspired rock that fuses the interests and playing styles of Cline and Borelli.

"I'm a much more bluesy type of player," Cline said.

"I'm a rock ‘n’ roll guy," Borelli added.

The album is stuffed with pop rock that recalls everything from mid-‘60s, swinging London Garage rock to ‘70s Americana through the filter of a big ‘70s power pop outfit like Cheap Trick. Borelli's voice and delivery recall earlly '60s Brit rockers, but often reminded me most of Cheap Trick's Robin Zander.

The band's playing is a guitar-driven mix of early Who, the Stones and lots of other early Brit rockers but with a good dose of countryesque slide guitars and acoustic strumming. The band changes sounds often, at times cresting into big Who-like guitar numbers ("Shine Always") and country stomps ("Flame of Love").

Though the comparisons are to bands whose heydays were 30 and 40 years ago, Borelli, Cline and 56 Men don't sound like an antiquated museum piece. In fact, that impression is shared by lots of listeners the band has picked up through airplay on college radio stations around the country.

At the time I interviewed them, Borelli handed me a list of Rutgers University radio station's top 10 list. 56 Men was getting more play than the new single from Sonic Youth. The band is also getting significant airplay on KMSU, the radio station at Minnesota State University. It's been played on other college stations from Princeton to an Americana station in Austin, Texas.

Asked if it was more play than he expected, Borelli laughed.

"We're crazy," he said. "We expected a lot more … We're going to keep going. We kept saying, 'We're going to make five records before we die,' now I think I'd like to do 10."

In the meantime, the band is gigging as much as the band members' schedules allow. They've played Philly rock club The Fire and NYC's Parkside Lounge. They've added Cline's brother Peter as a "utility man" (and computer technician) who can play keyboards and guitar.

"It's been great," Borelli said of the band. "It's like we've never changed."

56 Men are scheduled to play at the upcoming Main Street Fair on the grounds of Chestnut Hill Hospital on Sept. 26. Before the Main Street Fair, the band is playing the Northern Liberties Music Festival at Liberty Lands Park in Northern Liberties, Saturday, Sept. 12, 8 p.m.

The band's album is available for download on iTunes, or it can be purchased through Amazon.com or at Hideaway Record Store in Chestnut Hill. For more information on the band, gig dates and record information, visit www.myspace.com/fiftysixmen, or contact Borelli at 215-248-2549.